yptian
parallels see Moret, "Mysteres Egyptiens," p. 91, especially note 3. The
magic girdle assumed a great variety of forms as the number of
surrogates of the cowry increased. The mugwort (Artemisia) of Artemis
was worn in the girdle on St. John's Eve (Rendel Harris, _op. cit._, p.
91): the people of Zante use vervain in the same way; the people of
France (Creuse et Correres) rye-stalks; Eve's fig-leaves; in Vedic India
the initiate wore the "cincture of Munga's herbs"; and Kali had her
girdle of hands. Breasted, ("Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p.
29) says: "In the oldest fragments we hear of Isis the great, who
_fastened on the girdle_ in Khemmis, when she brought her [censer] and
burned incense before her son Horus."]

[268: This distinction between the significance of the amulet when worn
on the girdle and on the head (in the hair), or as a necklace or
bracelet, is very widespread. On the girdle it _usually_ has the
significance of stimulating the individual's fertility: worn elsewhere
it was intended to ward off danger to life, _i.e._ to give good luck. An
interesting surrogate of Hathor's distinctive emblem is the necklace of
golden apples worn by a priestess of Apollo (Rendel Harris, _op. cit._,
p. 42).]

[269: De Gubernatis, "Mythologie des Plantes," Vol. II, p. 35.]

Pearls.

During the chequered history of the Great Mother the attributes of the
original shell-amulet from which the goddess was sprung were also
changing and being elaborated to fit into a more complex scheme. The
magical properties of the cowry came to be acquired by other Red Sea
shells, such as _Pterocera_, the pearl oyster, conch shells, and others.
Each of these became intimately associated with the moon.[270] The
pearls found in the oysters were supposed to be little moons, drops of
the moon-substance (or dew) which fell from the sky into the gaping
oyster. Hence pearls acquired the reputation of "shining by night," like
the moon from which they were believed to have come: and every surrogate
of the Great Mother, whether plant, animal, mineral or mythical
instrument, came to be endowed with the power of "shining by night". But
pearls were also regarded as the quintessence of the shell's life-giving
properties, which were considered to be all the more potent because they
were sky-given emanations of the moon-goddess herself. Hence pearls
acquired the reputation of being the "givers of life" _par excellence_,
an idea which fo